What is the artist’s story?
A Hiro Ando is a contemporary Japanese artist whose work conflates traditional and present-day Japan. Ando re-contextualizes his country’s icons the Maneki-Neko (lucky cat), samurai warriors, sumo wrestlers, and koi fish, by reformatting them as colorful sculptures. Born in 1973 on the Island of Shikoku, Japan, he began his career as an illustrator after graduating from university. In 2005, Ando co-founded an artist collaborative and studio known as Crazynoodles. Today, the group consists of approximately 10 Neo-Pop artists, including the painter Saori Nakamishi. Ando currently lives and works between Tokyo, Japan, and Shanghai, China.
What is the artist’s inspiration for the NFT collection?
Japanese culture is a strong influence in his work, We cannot grow and advance without knowing from where one comes. In the same way, we must know where we’re going is to be able to live in the present. The present is the clash between the past and the future of an individual in the same way the artistic creation of a work is the synthesis between the origins and the future of an artist. His case is not isolated; many artists were influenced by the culture in which they built their artistic personalities. He has matured in this culture and his references are therefore mostly from Japanese popular culture. For example, Warhol uses the codes of American ’60s consumerism, contemporary Chinese references to the icons and the semantics of the Chinese Revolution, and Ando uses references to the Japanese urban culture and legendary icons, those references are the same for his NFTs work
How can this transform the world or our day-to-day lives?/ What problem does this solve?
This can be an answer to the democratization of art – the metaverse can open all possibles to everybody in the field of time, space, and cost. Perhaps it will be a breach in the elitist art system. What’s special about this collection is that the purchase/ ownership of an original digital piece may go towards the artist’s physical sculptures and printed artworks in the future – that’s a true investment.
What do you anticipate that art lovers/NFT collectors will love most about the collection?
Ando has always seen felines as the samurai warriors of our tradition. I’m not talking about reincarnation but similarities. They share the same elegance, the same strength, the same power discrete, the same attitudes, and it’s exactly what he wanted to show in his NFTs collection, he wanted all 4747 elegant but pop, strong but sympathetic, powerful but fancy
What is the direct link to purchase?
To purchase during the public sales: www.samuraicats.io
To join the community on discord: https://discord.gg/samuraicats
Pro-tip: Be ready with your virtual wallet!
